Salt

Critic's Rating: 3.5
Cast: Angelina Jolie, Liev Shreiber, Chiwetel Ejiofor
Direction: Phillip Noyce
Genre: Action
Duration: 1 hour 40 minutes


Movie Review: It's Angelina Jolie's race against time to prove she's truly Hollywood's Lara Croft (read alpha woman). So forget the script and sit back for an explosion of in-your-face action cuts where our stunt queen is hell bent on showcasing herself as truly `hero' material -- The One, amongst the guys -- sexy pout and svelte figure, notwithstanding.

The film opens with Ms Jolie being tortured in a North Korean prison from where she is rescued and then breaks into a relentless spree that has a twofold purpose. First, it is supposed to answer the million dollar query: Who is Salt -- Russian mole or patriotic CIA agent? And second, it is intentioned to save America -- and the world -- from armageddon that threatens to come in the shape of a nuclear holocaust, after the American President is forced to press the button by big bad Russia.

The film does keep you guessing and has its moments of mystery as Angelina's identity keeps slipping from Russian to American, as she hobnobs with the KGB and the CIA with equal ease. And in this game of high level subterfuge, she doesn't actually have any friends, even though her colleague Ted Winters (Liev Shreiber) does seem to trust her as much as the other co-agent (Chiwetel Ejiofor) doubts her credentials. But Ms Jolie really doesn't have time for friendship, trust and all such niceties in a world that's spinning towards disaster. She needs to make rocket launchers out of furniture; jump off bridge, onto high speeding trucks, leap down elevator shafts, wear latex on her face, inject tarantula juice into heads of states and break into the high security white House, dodging all the bullets and bombs that are aimed at her fragile form.

Fragile, did anyone say? Eat your words, people and open you eyes for agent Salt: the feminist answer to James Bond and Jason Bourne. She successfully completes her first adventure with a promise of a sequel. And a sequel....